In 2017, Joe Biden was writing his second memoir, using his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, to organize, polish, and edit the manuscript. Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, an emotional retelling of the life and death of his son Beau, was published that same year and became a bestseller.
Now, the Heritage Foundation and the Department of Justice have filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to release the audio recordings that Zwonitzer made to the public.
The Justice Department gave Biden until Tuesday, May 12, to challenge the release of the audio tapes.
“These tapes will further prove the massive lie regarding Biden’s fitness for office and the fact Biden revealed classified information,” Mike Howell, president of Heritage’s Oversight Project, told Politico. “The shenanigans aren’t over: At the last possible second, and after every delay tactic possible, the autopen is objecting to the American People receiving transparency.”
It's believed that Biden read from classified documents when being recorded by Zwonitzer. Later, Zwonitzer tried to destroy some of the recordings, only to have the DOJ recover most of them. Special counsel Robert Hur declined to prosecute Zwonitzer for obstruction of justice after refusing to prosecute Biden after finding the former president's memory “fuzzy,” “hazy,” and “poor” in 2024.
The 2023 Hur-Biden interviews, the audio of which was partially released in 2025, showed a president confused, forgetful, and perhaps suffering from age-related dementia.
Biden believed that the deal he made with Hur prevented the Justice Department from releasing the ghostwriter tapes.
“President Biden cooperated fully with Special Counsel Hur, and agreed to provide audiotapes of conversations with his biographer for a book about his deceased son on the condition that they would not be made public,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said in a statement. “The DOJ themselves have said these tapes serve no public interest.”
“What’s happening now isn’t about transparency. It’s about politics,” Ducklo continued. “If this Administration were genuinely committed to transparency, they would release Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s own alleged mishandling of classified documents. That report contains information Americans actually deserve to see.”
Biden may be challenging the release of the tapes, but Heritage isn't giving up.
The audio was obtained by investigators working with special counsel Robert Hur. Hur was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2023 after classified information was found in files from a think tank Biden was affiliated with after leaving the vice presidency and in files at his Delaware home. Hur ultimately decided not to charge Biden. DOJ policy bars charging a sitting president, but the prosecutor said he wouldn’t have sought charges anyway due to Biden’s “poor memory” and his cooperation with the probe.
Audio of Biden’s interview with Hur was leaked publicly last year and then officially released. During the Biden administration, DOJ opposed release of audio of Biden’s exchanges with the prosecutor, arguing that it could be weaponized in social media and elsewhere.
The audio DOJ now intends to release includes Biden reading to Marc Zwonitzer from notebooks that officials later determined contained classified information. According to quotes from those exchanges in Hur’s report, the recordings also feature Biden telling the ghostwriter: “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.”
"President Biden, through counsel, has advised the Department that he intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures," Assistant Attorney General Civil Division Brett Shumate wrote in a filing from a Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation's Mike Howell.
"Shumate noted the release of 70 hours of redacted recordings would be delayed until June 15 if Biden objects before the deadline," Fox News reports.
There's not likely to be further bombshells in the release. Hur has already declined to prosecute Biden for mishandling classified documents, although Biden owes the American people an explanation for why he kept classified documents in several locations after leaving office.
And the Democrats owe the American people an explanation and an apology for refusing to demand Biden's resignation after it became abundantly clear that he was unfit to continue as president.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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